State Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, shown here in a file photo, has appointed a monitor to help Elmwood Park balance its school budget. Star-Ledger file photo

ELMWOOD PARK — The borough's school superintendent is attributing the cost overruns that led the state to appoint a special monitor to oversee the district's budget to an unexpected growth in special education expenses.

According to The Record, the small district overspent its budget by $684,000 in 2010-11, and exceeded it again last year, though it is unclear by how much.

On Monday, Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf appeared personally at a school board meeting to introduce the monitor who will attempt to curb any similar overruns for the next two years. The state requires public school budgets to be balanced each year.

Superintendent Richard Tomko told the paper that the bottom line has been stressed by an influx of special needs students into the district, the addition of which can grossly inflate per-pupil costs.

With state-imposed spending caps already in place, the district has already been forced to make deep cuts to staff and bus routes, likely making the new monitor's job even tougher.